TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
At 09:56 AM 8/7/98 -0400, Chris Welch-Hutchings wrote:
>In the article, Langa discusses the poor documentation that accompanied
>a new CD writer he purchased. He mentions how skimpy the documentation
>was (half of a 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper) for a fairly complicated SW
>module that accompanied the CD writer and wonders why the vendor (a very
>well-known name in the PC peripherals world) didn't include more
>detailed docs. He understands the desire to keep printing costs down,
>but doesn't understand why more complete documentation wasn't included
>on the CD containing the SW module (especially since the SW took up only
>1% of the CD).
>
There's no excuse for not putting documentation on the CD, especially when
there's so much room. But the simple truth is that the Adaptec SW for
burning CDs is absurdly easy to use - if you know what you want to do in the
first place. I use it all the time and I never looked at the manual. Average
bozos who don't know a hybrid CD from ISO 9660 might be in trouble if they
don't know what they want to do. The online help is OK, but average bozos
need some context to help them understand why they would want to burn one
kind of CD rather than another.
--Wayne
---------------------------------------------
Wayne Douglass phone: 408-542-2139
Verity, Inc. FAX: 408-542-2040
894 Ross Road mailto:wayned -at- verity -dot- com
Sunnyvale, CA 94089 http://www.verity.com
---------------------------------------------